1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a medical device, and more particularly to a disposable protecting cover for an endoscope.
2. Description of the Related Art
An endoscope is widely used to go deeply into a cavity of a patient for examination and operation in medical field. The endoscope comprises an insertion portion disposed in the front thereof, comprising a viewing system, an illumination system, an operating system, a biopsy channel, a water air tube and a suction tube, the insertion portion having a 1-2 meter flexible cylinder, an operating portion disposed in the middle thereof, and a light guide portion disposed at the back thereof and connected to a light resource, an image processor, a water vapor pump, and a suction machine and so on. The endoscope contacts with a endoscope cavity, endoscope fluid and blood, so strict disinfection is required. Due to materials and structure of the endoscope, it cannot be disinfected by steam at high temperature and pressure, and as the high cost thereof, it cannot be used for only one time like an injector or a cardiac catheter. To facilitate disinfection, washing via disinfectant solution and dipping not only cost large amount of water and electricity, but also require sewage treatment, and disinfectant effect thereof is not stable enough. In order to improve the reliability of the endoscope disinfection, several methods are disclosed in US patents for overcoming the problem thereof.
To overcome the above-mentioned problems, an endoscope with a sheath is used. However, there are several disadvantages with the endoscope: firstly, a suction tube is disposed in a endoscope of the endoscope and cannot be changed after use, which makes it the most polluted and unsafe; secondly, there is no fixing device between the front of a sheath and a head of the endoscope, which may cause one of them to detach from the other; thirdly, no one-way valve is disposed on a water air tube to prevent backstreaming, which causes water or air to flow reversely as pressure in a cavity of a patient varies; fourthly, an operating portion of the endoscope is not covered and protected, and may be contaminated by hands of a doctor; fifthly, though a prior art (such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,852,772 B2) discloses a method for protecting the operating portion, materials and structure of the endoscope are not practical, and production cost thereof is high.